Articles Archive for April 2009

Two nights ago I drank vinegar like it was soda, sucked lemons like lollipops, and gnawed on raw rhubarb. I voluntarily drank plain hot sauce and couldn’t get enough of normally bitter blackberries. Was this a dream? Have my taste buds gone dormant? Was I on drugs?

No. What I was on is referred to by many as a food trip, a journey made possible by a small, red, berry called Miracle Fruit, or Synsepalum dulcificum.
Thanks to a donation of 20 frozen Miracle Fruit berries from a company called Miracle Fruit …

When Dana mentioned offhandedly that her husband Mike rents wine storage space in Austin, I figured she meant that he had a locker at one of the cheap storage facilities on the outskirts of downtown. I couldn’t have been more far off!
On a Friday night, Adam and I met Mike and Dana at the Brown Building on 8th and Colorado and got cocktails at The Brown Bar.
The Brown Building was designed by Charles Henry Page, a leading Austin architect, in 1938. Constructed by Herman Brown, the building featured elaborate Deco-style …

Clearly I’m on a brunch kick. Adam and I met a group of friends old (Ilyse, Jessica) and new (Matt, The Ice Cream Man and James of The Eaten Path) at Enoteca Vespaio for Sunday brunch after SXSW.
There were nine of us and we were attempting to get a table on South Congress Avenue during the busiest time of year. This was my idea and I can’t explain the temporary insanity that made me think this would work. The strategy: leave our name at South Congress Café, Enoteca, and Woodland …

If you love ice cream cones as much as I do, you will be very happy at least twice in the next two weeks. Why? Because Ben & Jerry’s and Baskin Robbins are providing FREE and as good as free ice cream cones.
I’m not afraid to say that my favorite ice cream is Baskin Robbins — probably because we would go there every week during the summer months in Maryland and my mom and I would always get mint chocolate chip or pralines in cream. While I enjoy the big …

My mom found an old photocopy of a letter her father wrote in early February, 1936 after meeting her mother. I never met my grandfather (Joe) as he died before I was born. This letter gave me a better picture of who he was as a person than any other picture or story has done.
Joe is writing to his sister, Freda, to tell her about the wonderful woman he has decided to marry after only knowing her for eight days. He was 29 years old. The first photo below features …